Berry-prop.



A. DE V. TURNER.

BERRY PROP. APPLICATION IILED NOV.26,1906.

' Patented May 11, 1909.

6 W k w Jr W tent ALEMBERT DE VERE TURNER, OF BOARDMAN, NORTH CAROLINA.

BERRY-PROP.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented May 11, 1909.

Application filed November 26, 1906. Serial No. 345,11.

To all whom it may concern: I a

Be-it known that I, ALEMBERT DE VERE TURNER, a citizen of the United States, re-

siding at Boardman, in the county of Columbus and State of North Carolina, have invented certain new and useful Im ro've ments in Berry-Props; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

As is well known, it is the common practice, among farmers, truckers, etc., in raising berries, to use straw, or analogous substance, to prop u hills 'of berries, and to prevent the berries fc lling into the sand, or the like, of the ground. While this is to a certain eX- piractioal and satisfactory, yet great difiicu ty is experienced because the wind blows the straw away, and, moreover, straw is not always at hand and, in some parts of the country is hard to obtain.

The object, primarily, of my invention, therefore, is to overcome the above-enumerated objections, by providing a device which is of the utmost simplicity of construction, yet which possesses the maximum of useful ness and practicability, which is very durable in use,".which is exceedingly cheap to manufacture, and which, therefore, may b sold, either separately or in bulk, at merely a nominal sum.

Another object is to construct the device in such a manner and of such a material that weeding out-of grass, weeds, etc, from beneath the sup ort may not be hampered or interfered wit 1, or prevented.

With these objects in view, and Others appearing as the s ecification proceeds, my inventioncompre ends the novel construction, combination, and arrangement of parts of a device characterized by my invention, as will be explained in the following description,

summed up in the claims, and illustrated in the drawings, in which latter:

Figure 1 is a plan View of my invention, and Fig. 2.is a perspective view thereof, one portion thereof being rolled up, in the act of positioning the device around the berryplant to support the same.

Referring to the drawings A indicates a sheet of any suitable, preferably somewhat flexible and resilient, material, advanta geously indestructible paper, such as felt pa- The size of each sheet of paper is not material, and itmay be cut in any size desired for the exigencies of a particular situation. ,Preferably toward the center of the sheet of paper, 1 form a somewhat large opening A and additional, smaller openings A are also cut in the paper. The number of smaller openings is immaterial, but it is desirable that there should be a considerable number-thereof. From one of the edges ofthe sheet A to the opening A I make a slit A, whereby (as gra hically illustrated in Fig. 2), in positioning t 1e sheet .or prop about the berry-plant, a portion ofthesheet may be opened out, allowing great freedom of movement in positioning the sheet about the berrylant, it being under stood that as soon as 1; 1e hand of the operator releases the sheet, it will, by reason of its resiliency, return to its normal, flat position,

shown in Fig. 1.

It will be understood that, instead of forming my paper into small squares, such as shown in thodrawing, I may form it in long,

oblong sheets, and in each square foot of the long sheet punch a large opening A smaller openings A and a slit A In use, the growing strawberry plant projects through the large opening A and the aper A forms a barrier or prop between the berries and the sand, or ground, while the berries are ripening; and the smaller openings A effectively drain off from the. paper rain descending thereupon. By reason of the paper sheet being held by the berry-plant projectin through the central opening A, the sheet wl not be blown away by the wind, like straw placed around the plant.

By reason of the structure of my device and the material of which it is composed,

weeding out of grass, weeds, etc, from be- .7

neath the sheet or prop'is rendered possible and easy.

It will be noted that some kind of tough and heavy, yet flexible material, such as cardboard or felt paper, or the like, is the i only substance which is advantageous for use in m Liking up my invention and for the objects which I have in view,-lightness of weight, facility of obtainment of the material, cheapness to manufacture and sell, ease of construction, and ease of applying in use. On the other hand, if the device were made of wood, for instance, this presents too heavy a structure, is not so cheap to manufacture, is not so easy to work up, is not so easy to obtain, and moreover it lacks the necessary advantage (for my purpose) of bethe device about a berry-plant.

ing flexible and resilient, so that a ortiofi thereof maybe opened out when a justing If 1t were proposed to use wood, it would, to attain my objects, have to be made so light that it would warp b action of rain and sun.

From the a ove description, taken in connection with the drawings; it will be seen that my invention is exceedingly simple, that it is thoroughly practical,- that it is practically indestructible (being preferably of feltpaper), and that it effectively keeps the berries, in the stage of ripening, from -falling onto, or coming in contact with, the sand or ground, and that the wind will not blow the pug) away. I a I aving thus fully-described my invention,

what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters-Patent is:

A berry-prop of the character described, comprising a flat sheet of comparativel thic water-fivroofed, yieldable paper-boar provided wit an enlarged opening at its central portion and with a plurality of smaller openings surrounding sald central opening, said sheet being cut ona straight line from one edge thereof to said central opening.

In testimony whereof, I aflix my signature, in the presence of two-subscribing wltnesses.

'ALEMBE'R-T DE VERE TURNER.

Witnesses:

CHAS. L. S. SHELDRAKE, E. G. MARKHAM. 

